The BUAV has released footage of a shipment of 120 long-tailed macaques being loaded on to an Air France flight. On their website they state that the flight took place on May 12 2011 and that the monkeys were transported from Vietnam to Covance in the USA. Fortunately the Air France Cargo shipment number is clearly visible in the video, (057 90196083), and by using this activists have been able to trace the monkeys' journey from Vietnam to the USA in minute detail!

We can now confirm that the monkeys in the video were transported from Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, via Paris, to Chicago in the USA. We can now say that they were transported between May 11th - 13th, and that they travelled on both an Air France passenger plane and an Air France-KLM Cargo plane during their journey to hell!

According to records seen by Air Souffrance; the shipment of monkeys, weighing 896Kgs was originally booked on the 29th of April, and the monkeys were delivered to the Air France-KLM Cargo handlers at Ho Chi Minh airport at 07:12 GMT on May 11th by an unknown cargo shipper.

They were then flown to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, (CDG), on Air France passenger flight AF153 from Ho Chi Minh, which left at 11:23 GMT on May 11th and arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport at 03:40 GMT on May 12th. During this flight the monkeys were literally travelling underneath the feet of Air France's human passengers!

The monkeys remained in Paris for an 8 hour "rest stop" and veterinary checks, until they left Paris CDG at 12:24 GMT on Air France-KLM Cargo flight AF6802 destined for Chicago O'Hare International airport, where they arrived at 21:05 GMT on May 12th.

Finally the monkeys were collected at Chicago O'Hare International airport by a representative of Covance Research Products at 03:24 GMT on May 13th. They will then have been transported for at least another 2 hours by road to Covance's research facility in Madison, Wisconsin.

It is not known how long the monkeys' journey from the farm to the airport in Vietnam was, nor how long they spent loaded in their crates prior to departure, but they can't have arrived at Covance earlier than 05:30 GMT on May 13th and therefore, when we include their road journey in Vietnam, they must have been in those transit crates for at least 48 hours!

Studies carried out by scientists have shown that transportation causes profound negative and lasting effects on the welfare of primates. The long-tailed macaque in particular has been identified as a species unsuited to transport, yet Air France-KLM continues to transport thousands of them to research labs each year. The BUAV claim to have evidence of one primate from Vietnam being found dead in Paris, and another that had been transported from Mauritius being found dead on arrival, but they don't specify which airlines were involved.

It is still not known who supplied the monkeys, however it's likely that they were supplied by Nafovanny, (the largest captive-breeding primate facility in the world with at least 30,000 primates on site). The British Animal Scientific Procedures Inspectorate, (the same inspectors who regularly ignore shocking animal abuse in British labs), visited Nafovanny in March 2005 and identified "shortcomings in animal accommodation and care". Undercover investigators from the BUAV also filmed shocking conditions at Nafovanny in 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFw5o_AslaU

The lab who imported the monkeys, Covance Research Products, was the biggest importer of primates in the USA last year, importing 8,430 monkeys. In 2009 Covance used 7,268 primates in experiments at their Madison site, (the believed destination of the monkeys in the video). Covance is also well known for poor animal care and an undercover investigation by PETA at their Vienna site in 2005 exposed shocking animal cruelty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-VEJzDl8U

As part of their expose the BUAV also released details of another shipment of 100 long-tailed macaques, transported on an Air France flight from Vietnam to France on 9 March 2011, destined for the French Centre de Primatologie in Strasbourg.

Unfortunately we don't have the shipment numbers for this flight, so we are unable to say with certainty how the monkey shipment on the 9th of March was transported. However, considering both shipments were transported on the same route on the same day it's also quite likely that they also travelled in the same way, next to the luggage of their human passengers.

Finally, our thoughts go out to the 120 innocent souls who are currently residing in the quarantine facility at Covance's research facility in Madison. Primates are usually quarantined for around 40 days to check for illness and disease. The lucky ones will be infected or diseased and will be swiftly killed, the unlucky ones will be considered "viable" for research and will suffer in horrific poisoning experiments that can last for months before being killed and dissected.

The monkeys shown in the BUAV's video will be isolated in small metal cages in a quarantine facility during the global week of action between May 27th - 3rd June...where will you be???